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What is the difference please
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Jul 1, 2013 08:03:42   #
oldmalky Loc: West Midlands,England.
 
As the title says what is the difference between digital zoom and optical zoom. thanks in advance

oldmalky

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Jul 1, 2013 08:09:52   #
Izza1967 Loc: Bristol, England
 
Optical zoom uses lenses to make the image appear closer while keeping resolution.

Digital zoom takes the image and basically doubles the pixel size or crops to make the image appear to be closer though adds no further detail and in fact makes the image less clear.

Optical zoom is the preferred option and I would personally never use digital zoom as I can do that in Photoshop anyway :)

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Jul 1, 2013 08:11:44   #
boydimages Loc: California
 
oldmalky wrote:
As the title says what is the difference between digital zoom and optical zoom. thanks in advance

oldmalky


Optical is good, digital sucks. Optical is managed with the lens while digital takes your image and crops it. Some cameras when looking at the zoom slider on LCD will change color when it starts the digital zoom. Some will let you turn off digital zoom in the menu.

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Jul 1, 2013 08:17:00   #
ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA
 
Digital zoom is similar to cropping the image whereas optical uses the camera's optics or zoom lens. As an example, on a DSLR, optical zooming can be achieved with a zoom lens but not with a prime lens. Digital zoom can be achieved on a DSLR only after the photo is taken - then can use the zoom button in back or the menu to alter the picture, or cropping on the computer.

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Jul 1, 2013 08:20:57   #
bw3 Loc: Vermillion, SD
 
Good advice. I avoid digital zoom if at all possible.

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Jul 1, 2013 08:23:35   #
oldmalky Loc: West Midlands,England.
 
looking at cameras on e-bay and the Sony DSC W710 the optical zoom was 5x the digital was 20x, so in that case the P&S or Bridge with 40x or 50x zoom are not much good then?

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Jul 1, 2013 08:25:22   #
dynaquest1 Loc: Austin, Texas
 
I know of no good DSLR that even uses digital zoom. That said, DX cameras all use a sort of digital zoom in that the smaller DX sensor size "crops" the image provided to the camera by the lens.

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Jul 1, 2013 08:31:24   #
Searcher Loc: Kent, England
 
oldmalky wrote:
looking at cameras on e-bay and the Sony DSC W710 the optical zoom was 5x the digital was 20x, so in that case the P&S or Bridge with 40x or 50x zoom are not much good then?


The so called super zoom bridge cameras all use optical zoom, many bridge camera don't even bother with digital zoom.
The Canon SX150HS which is like a bridge camera without a viewfinder, has both kids of zoom, but the digital can be turned off.

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Jul 1, 2013 08:34:25   #
Wahawk Loc: NE IA
 
oldmalky wrote:
looking at cameras on e-bay and the Sony DSC W710 the optical zoom was 5x the digital was 20x, so in that case the P&S or Bridge with 40x or 50x zoom are not much good then?


When talking about a 'bridge' camera, such as the Canon SX50, with a 50x zoom, this is OPTICAL zoom. When the SX40 & SX50 go into 'digital' zoom, the number of pixels stays at full and the Digic5 processor inside the camera does a software interpolation to "enlarge" the image "similar" to using sofware like Genuine Fractals or Perfect Resize to enlarge the image (but Perfect Resize is supposed to do a better job of it).

Staying within the OPTICAL zoom range results in the best image, but Canon SX50/SX40 cameras do a good enough job in the 'digital' range that I do use it quite often.

My "SX50 - Zoom Test" shows both results:
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-125836-1.html

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Jul 1, 2013 11:18:53   #
oldmalky Loc: West Midlands,England.
 
Last question then is the Sony DSC10 W710 just an ordinary P&S that would be fine for non serious snaps rather than something special. thank you for all your answer.

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Jul 1, 2013 18:34:11   #
Wahawk Loc: NE IA
 
oldmalky wrote:
Last question then is the Sony DSC10 W710 just an ordinary P&S that would be fine for non serious snaps rather than something special. thank you for all your answer.


For a pocket camera with 5x optical zoom (shut off the digital part) it should be a good camera. I personally use a Panasonic Lumix that I got for approx $100 on sale that has 10x optical zoom.

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Jul 1, 2013 19:11:02   #
LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field
 
oldmalky wrote:
As the title says what is the difference between digital zoom and optical zoom. thanks in advance

oldmalky


Think of digital zoom as another form of cropping

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Jul 1, 2013 19:12:28   #
LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field
 
ecobin wrote:
Digital zoom is similar to cropping the image whereas optical uses the camera's optics or zoom lens. As an example, on a DSLR, optical zooming can be achieved with a zoom lens but not with a prime lens. Digital zoom can be achieved on a DSLR only after the photo is taken - then can use the zoom button in back or the menu to alter the picture, or cropping on the computer.



I should read through them all before answering....

nahhhhh!

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Jul 1, 2013 22:30:44   #
n3eg Loc: West coast USA
 
Shoot RAW, crop later. Cameras won't even let you use digital zoom in RAW.

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Jul 2, 2013 05:20:33   #
murm Loc: Adelaide, Australia
 
Forget you ever heard of digital zoom !

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